Is there anything more classic than strawberry shortcake on a hot summer day? These Frosted Strawberry Shortcake Cookies pack all the sweet puckery punch of strawberries crowned in a creamy, dreamy puff of vanilla frosting. If they weren’t so irresistible they’d be almost too pretty to eat.

Whether it’s Easy Strawberry Shortcake Cheesecake or these pretty in pink frosted cookies, it’s a combination that instantly brings you back to childhood and sun warmed juicy berries dripping down your arms. The easy process of making these cookies combined with their nostalgic flavor profile will become your new favorite way to enjoy strawberry shortcakes.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Familiar Flavors – Did you grow up with eating the strawberry shortcake ice cream bars as a kid? The freeze dried strawberry and vanilla wafer topping on these cookies will instantly remind you of these.
Easy Process – The cookie dough for these strawberry cookies comes together easily and bakes up in less than 15 minutes. The frosting also comes together for that perfect thick, luscious, and creamy topping.
Baking Staples – With the exception of the strawberry flavoring you probably have most of the ingredients to make these cookies. Using baking staples like flour, sugar, and butter there is nothing complicated about these.
Make Ahead – You can make the cookies and the frosting ahead of time and frost them when you’re ready. These are party perfect and always crowd pleasers.

Ingredients

The days are just a little sunnier when they’re dressed up and pretty in pink. These cheery Frosted Strawberry Shortcake Cookies combine baking staples with the vibrant and fresh ripe flavor of strawberry extract.

Flour – No need for anything fancy. Regular all purpose flour works just fine for this recipe. You can make it gluten free by using a 1 to 1 flour such as Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 Baking flour.
Egg
Amoretti Strawberry Flavoring – Amoretti Wild Strawberry Artisian Flavor is naturally flavored and naturally sweetened. It doesn’t contain any preservatives and is handcrafted in California.
Butter – This is used in both the cookies themselves to give them richness and a moist, tender texture and also in the butter cream. You will want it at room temperature for both the cookie dough and also the frosting.
Sugar – Regular granulated sugar gives these cookies their delicate sweetness while powdered sugar easily mixes into the buttercream frosting.
Baking Powder
Baking Soda
Salt – Enhances all of the natural flavors of the ingredients.
Vanilla Extract – The better the quality the extract, the more pronounced the flavor. This gives the vanilla frosting its sweet flavor and compliments the strawberry.
Milk – Helps thin out the frosting and give it a creamy, luscious texture.

How to Make Frosted Strawberry Shortcake Cookies

The cheery pink batter of these strawberry cookies will have you liking the spoon before they even hit the cookie pan. Dressed in a cloud of silky-smooth frosting, these are a true taste of summer.

Time needed: 1 hour and 45 minutes

Strawberry cookies are topped with a sweet vanilla buttercream and dried strawberry and vanilla wafer topping.

Cream
Add the butter and sugar to a mixing bowl and mix on high for three minutes. It will be light and fluffy. Mix in the strawberry flavoring and egg.
Dry
Add the dry ingredients and mix until they’re just combined.
Chill
Cover your bowl with plastic wrap and allow your cookie dough to refrigerate for at least an hour so the butter can harden up.
Prep
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
Scoop
Use a 2″ scoop to portion out dough, placing the scoops onto your prepared baking sheets. You want them to be at least 1 12″ apart as the cookies will spread when they bake.
Bake
Allow the cookies to bake for 10-12 minutes. Their edges will be slightly golden brown.
Cool Down
Let the baked cookies cool completely before frosting.
Frosting
Add all of the ingredients for the vanilla buttercream to a bowl and mix until smooth and creamy. Pipe onto the cookies.
Finishing Touch
Mix together the crushed freeze dried strawberries and crushed vanilla wafers. Sprinkle them over the top of the cookies.

How to Make This Recipe Gluten Free

This recipe can easily be made completely gluten free. Use a 1 to 1 flour for the cookie portion of this recipe. The measurements will be the same. For the topping use your favorite gluten free vanilla wafer cookie, or vanilla cookie.

How to Make This Recipe Dairy Free

These strawberry shortcake cookies can easily be made completely dairy free. Use your favorite plant based butter in both the cookie dough and also for the butter cream frosting. Replace the milk in the frosting with a dairy free milk such as oat milk. Make sure that it is unflavored and not sweetened.

Storage

You can make both the cookie dough itself and also the frosting ahead of time, up two days in advance. Cover both tightly with plastic wrap or transfer them to an airtight container and keep them refrigerated. If the dough seems a little too hard to scoop allow it to sit out just long enough to slightly soften up.

Once these cookies are baked and decorated you’ll want to keep them stored in an airtight container. They will last for up to a week if kept refrigerated and up to five days at room temperature.

Top Tips for Frosted Strawberry Shortcake Cookies

Refrigerate your dough. This cookie dough is a butter cookie base. If you immediately bake your cookies after making your dough the warm butter will spread too fast creating a thin cookie. By refrigerating the dough the butter hardens up and when the cookies bake the instead puff slightly giving your that tender and moist bite.
Use a scoop. Equally portioned cookies all bake at the same time. Use a scoop to easily make your cookies uniform.
Make sure your butter is at room temperature. You want to make sure your butter is at room temperature both for the cookie dough and also the butter cream frosting. This will allow everything to mix together smoothly and lump free. The key to tender cookies is not overmixing the batter and this helps.